


A Persian Snow Day

by DakotaTheWhale



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux, Phantom - Susan Kay, Phantom of the Opera - Lloyd Webber
Genre: Erik - Freeform, Kay!Erik, Kay!Phantom, Kerik, Nadir Khan - Freeform, Phantom of the Opera - Freeform, Reza - Freeform, Susan Kay, The Persian - Freeform, i actually cried, just sibling bonding, kay - Freeform, poto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 10:41:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18467287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DakotaTheWhale/pseuds/DakotaTheWhale
Summary: When a sudden snowstorm hits Persia, what's a child, a Daroga, and a Phantom to do?





	A Persian Snow Day

 

“Erik!” A child’s voice whisper-yelled, “Erik, get up you sleepy head!”

 

Erik’s amber eyes flickered open to see Nadir’s young son Reza atop his lap, shaking him to consciousness. His head rose from the mahogany loveseat to look at the child.

 

“Reza, what on earth are you doing up?” He yawned.

 

“Papa isn’t awake and.. and something’s happening outside!” Reza whimpered with underlying urgency, “It’s really cold too..”

 

Upon closer inspection, Erik noticed both Reza’s and his own breaths were visible in the air. He carefully took Reza off of his person and stood up. It wasn’t abnormal for Erik to stay the night at Nadir’s home, but to visibly keel over in his living room, from what must been exhaustion, was a tad embarrassing to say the least.

 

Surprisingly, Reza had been correct. The house did feel much colder to what it usually felt like and seeing the boy with merely a thin cotton shirt to warm him filled Erik with pity.

 

“Sit.” Erik instructed, pointing to the loveseat, “I’ll go start the fireplace and wake your father.”

 

“No no! Please, Erik!” Reza cried out as he tugged on Erik’s cloak, “You must see what’s happening!”

 

Tiny, frail Reza took Erik by the hand and led him towards the covered window. The cold spell obviously seemed to be emanating from the outside. Erik suddenly pulled the curtain away, flooding the room with pale white light with his dark silhouette contrasting against it. The glass was foggy and bits of ice had begun to gather at the corners of the wooden frame. Reza immediately fled behind Erik’s cloak like a young cub would retreat to its mother.

 

Outside the window, the once grassy and tropical plains were covered in a white sheet of ice, with flurries still scattering above.

 

“It’s snow.” Erik concluded, stepping aside to let the terrified child see outside.

 

“Snow.” He repeated, awestruck by the sight. “What’s ‘snow,’ Erik?”

 

It hadn’t occurred to him that Reza had probably never seen this type of weather in his life, and it would be an unfamiliar, perhaps even scary, sight for sight a young Persian boy. Erik couldn’t recall the last time _he_ had seen snow; undoubtedly long before he had ever arrived in Persia.

 

“Snow is just frozen water--”

 

“But frozen water is ice!” Reza interrupted,

 

“You did not let me finish. Snow is frozen water, but the frozen water gets turned into small crystals inside the clouds.”

 

“When it falls to the earth, it looks like this.” Erik gestured towards the snow-laden fields that could be seen from the window.

 

“So is it _magic?_ ” Reza asked, his eyes filled with wonder.

 

Erik could hear his own voice repeating that question to his mother many, many years prior. His childhood fascination with mirrors often made him question if the shiny surface was truly a magical oddity.

 

“I’m afraid not. Since it snows in so many places around the world, I’d say it’s hardly magical.” he sighed. He hated to discourage Reza’s active imagination but to lie about what something _actually_ is, in his mind, was the worst crime of all.

 

Reza had drawn closer to the window, his nose and forehead pressed against it. “Can we go outside? Please?”

 

_“Not while you’re wearing that.”_

 

A voice called from the hallways. Nadir, authoritative and bossy Nadir, stood with his arms crossed in the doorway and seemingly awoken not too long ago, judging by his unkempt appearance and absence of his normal Darogan overcoat.

 

“Papa!” Reza, now seeing his father, beckoned him over to the window. “Papa! Come see! Come see!”

 

“Happy to see you’re still alive and not frozen to the bed, _Monsieur Khan._ ” Erik smirked, giving a mock bow to his friend.

 

He rolled his eyes at the comment and walked over to the window Reza was so fixated upon.

 

“Papa, Erik says it’s ‘snow!’” Reza said happily.

 

“He would be correct.” Nadir smiled, rubbing the boy’s head. “I don’t think the empire has seen this much snowfall in decades.”

 

“Oh, Please? Can we go outside, Papa?” Reza begged.

 

He thought for a moment and sighed. “Go get your _Kandys_ and some boots. I refuse to let you go outside without sufficient layers.”

 

Reza let out a squeal of excitement and went up the stairs as fast as his wobbly limbs could take him. All the while, Erik stood at the window tracing his finger against the frosted glass.

 

“Well aren’t you going to get your coat too?” Nadir asked impatiently.

 

“I have no need for one.” Erik shrugged, “Perhaps you should get yours.”

 

“By Allah, Erik! You’ll catch a cold!”

 

“ _Au Contraire_ , Daroga.” Erik laughed quietly, “I believe the cold has caught _us._ ”

 

Nadir let out a groan at Erik’s awful attempt at humoring him. When would this man ever learn to take care of himself? “I implore you to at least attempt to keep yourself warm. Be a good example for Reza. Should he see you without a coat he’ll think it’s okay for him to not wear one the next time this happens!”

 

“Nadir, you know there probably won’t be a next time.” Erik’s tone had become foreboding and quiet.

 

There was a tense and pregnant silence as Nadir’s face contorted in fear of his son’s soon-to-be fate. Had Reza not come down the stairs that very next moment, Nadir would have slapped Erik in the face for such a comment.

 

“Papa! Can we go now?” Reza asked with anticipation.

 

“Let me go get my boots on.” Nadir put on a fake smile to hide his previously mournful expression. “Erik, could you accompany him outside?”

 

“Of course.” Erik took Reza’s hand and opened the door to the snowy fields outside. A blast of cold wind hit the two of them as Nadir watched solemnly from the window. He knew Erik was right. Reza may have three or four more years left if he was lucky and yet the boy seemed happily oblivious to his impending death. He sighed and left the windowsill to grab his boots and delve into the frozen wonderland outside.

  


-

 

-

Reza bounded into the thick snow which swallowed up his ankles. Erik watched from a distance near the doorway but kept vigilant watch over the child.

 

“Erik! Erik!” Reza shouted from farther down the slope, “Come play with me!”

 

Though he hesitated to follow the boy’s command, he obeyed and met Reza at the valley he stood on.

 

“It’s so beautiful, Erik! I wish it could stay like this forever!” Reza dug his hands into the white snow by his feet unphased by the stinging cold in his fingers.

 

“Are you sure? Were you not just telling me you were frightened by the cold while inside?” Erik teased.

 

“Well, I’m not afraid anymore!” Reza proclaimed, laughing all the while as he spread his body in the snow. “Was there snow in Paris?”

 

“It did snow in winter occasionally.”

 

“What happens to it when it gets hot again?”

 

“It will melt. Just as ice melts in the sun.”

 

Reza looked somewhat disappointed. He laid silent for a moment. “Will it ever snow like this again, Erik?”

 

Erik sighed, observing a few snowflakes that landed on his sleeve. “If it does, I hope we’ll all be around to experience it together.” He wiped the flakes from his sleeves, and his eyes lit up with an idea.

 

“In the meantime, I have something _fun_ we can do.”

 

-

 

Nadir quickly slipped on his large uniform boots and head out the door. He didn’t see the tall slender figure of Erik, nor did he see his son. “Reza? Erik? Where are you?” He called out into the white landscape.

 

No response.

 

He called out again, walking up the slope where he saw a fait trail shoe-prints. “Reza! Where were yo--”

 

When he reached the climax of the slope, Nadir felt a cold sensation slam into his chest and send him falling into the snow behind him. Two sets of laughter erupted from over the slope, one childish and high pitched, while the other was low and bellowing.

 

Nadir, laying in the snow, looked at his coat and saw the watery stain of snow in the center of his chest.

 

“Good shot, Reza!” Erik yelled out, coming over the top of the slope with young Reza at his side.

 

“So you’re responsible for this!” Nadir shouted as he tried to stand himself back up in the slushy whiteness. Just as soon as he stood up, another snowball knocked him in the shoulder and made him stagger backwards.

 

“I wouldn’t get up so soon, Daroga.” Erik taunted, “We have _plenty_ more ammunition at our disposal.”

 

Reza was already forming another snowball in his tiny hands, while Erik already had one prepared in his palm and ready to launch. “Erik, you stop this foolishness at once!” Nadir yelled out in frustration, “Come over here this instant!” Reza was winding up to send another snowball at his father, but Erik laid his empty hand on his shoulder. In an understanding agreement without the need of words, Reza walked with him towards Nadir.

 

His hand clenched in the snow, now standing in front of the two attackers. “What was the meaning of that?” Nadir demanded.

 

Reza bowed his head in shame, hiding behind Erik once more. “It was my idea, Nadir. He is not the one at fault.”

 

“I assumed so!” Nadir retorted with his hands behind his back. “You will be punished for such insolence!”

 

Erik opened his mouth to speak but before he could utter a word, the cold sensation of snow smashed onto the mask, some of it’s cold contents dripping under and off his chin. Nadir laughed and Reza screamed with enjoyment at this reversal of fate.

 

Instantly, Nadir took a running start towards the house with now a slightly stunned Erik chasing after him all while he screamed a flurry of colorful insults towards the Persian.

 

The three men were outside for almost an hour before both Nadir and Erik had announced defeat and proclaimed Reza the winner. Nadir ushered his son inside to get changed.

 

“You promise you will come inside soon?” Nadir asked Erik, who was still standing in the snow.

 

“Yes, yes. Just give me a couple minutes to myself.”

 

Nadir nodded and shut the door to his home.

 

When all was nearly silent and the only sound being the gentle whistle of the wind, Erik brought his hands to his face and took off the mask. The cold breeze flittered over his skin, feeling like a spirit had intertwined with his mortal soul. He opened his eyes and looked towards the grey clouds far above him with a longing even he could not describe himself. The puffs of breath coming from is nasal cavity grew errant and inconsistent until he was forced to look away from the skies above. It was quite time to go back inside anyways.

 

Refitting the mask onto his face, Erik took one last unsteady breath of the frozen air before turning on his heel and into the house. Sitting next to the mahogany chair he’d woken up in that morning was a freshly brewed cup of lemon tea which still steamed from being poured, and a paper drawing of three figures playing together in the snow.

 

Appropriately named _“My First Snow Day.”_

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
